Inside Motor Sports

Winston Cup drivers have always had carte blanche to drop downto the Busch Series. Trouble is, they're doing it in largenumbers this year and, as a result, could hinder the feedersystem that produced Jeff Gordon and is currently the provingground for young drivers such as Dale Earnhardt Jr., MattKenseth and Adam Petty.

Until this season the average number of Winston Cup driverscompeting in a Busch race was three. At Las Vegas on March 6, awhopping 17 Cup drivers participated in a field of 43. A weeklater 14 muscled into the race at Atlanta, and last Saturdayeight ran at Darlington. "There are too many Cup guys," saysBusch regular and two-time points champion Randy LaJoie. "It'ssending some of our regulars home, and it's hurting the youngguys in gaining seat time." That is, drivers trying to worktheir way up through the system are being displaced because theycan't qualify ahead of the better-equipped Winston Cup drivers.

Jimmy Spencer, who carpetbags in Busch as a driver and is alsoowner of the Busch car driven by Dick Trickle, counters, "If theBusch Series draws good crowds on Saturdays, it's because MarkMartin, Jeff Burton and especially Jeff Gordon are in thoseraces." Gordon, who has been off the Busch circuit since 1993,plans to run in five of the 32 races this year, primarilybecause he and his Winston Cup crew chief, Ray Evernhan, formedtheir own Busch team during the off-season and secured a $1.5million sponsorship from Pepsi for Gordon's appearance in ahandful of races.

The downside to competing in the Busch races for Gordon andother big-name drivers is the risk of an injury that couldhamper or ruin their Winston Cup title prospects. Last Friday,Bobby Labonte broke his right collarbone while qualifying forthe Busch race and had to shorten his time behind the wheel inSunday's Winston Cup race. In Gordon's case the marquee name forall NASCAR racing could be knocked out of action. "They'remaking [an extra] half-million dollars a year each, that's whatthey're doing," LaJoie says of the stars. "What might put an endto it is if one of them does get hurt on a Saturday."

Tennis and golf don't allow Pete Sampras and Tiger Woods,respectively, to enter satellite tour events. "This is the onlysport that allows such a thing," says LaJoie. "Let us have ourseries back."

Dale Earnhardt Jr.CAN'T STAND SUCCESS

Dale Earnhardt's life as the most-heralded, best-financedWinston Cup prospect in the history of NASCAR has become, hesays, "an overwhelming pain in the ass." Earnhardt, 24, is thereigning Busch Series champion, where he won seven races lastyear, but heading into Saturday's Coca-Cola 300 at Texas MotorSpeedway, site of his inaugural victory last April, he's winlessthrough five races this season.

"A lot of people say, 'You ought to be grateful, man. You've gotthe opportunity of a lifetime, blah, blah,'" Earnhardt says,"but they don't have to walk in these shoes. You can't eat, youcan't sleep, you can't do anything without thinking aboutit--and dreading that life will never be like it was. A lot ofadvantages and rewards come with this [situation], but hell,you're so busy you don't have time to enjoy it. So sometimes youwonder, what the hell good is it?"

On May 30, in the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte, Earnhardt willmake his Winston Cup debut under an eight-year, $80 millionsponsorship from Budweiser. A huge publicitycampaign--"Countdown to E-Day"--is planned. "Hell week" is whathe says he's anticipating.

"I'm not as good as I was last year," says Earnhardt, who hasfinished 14th, 35th, sixth, third and 11th this season. "I'm notas focused. Once the race gets going, I come around. But rightoff the bat it's hard to go at it like I did last year. I'm notburned out--just thinking about everything."

Little E, as the son of NASCAR driving legend Dale Earnhardt isknown, says the relentless travel and flesh-pressingappearances, usually on behalf of sponsors, have left his headspinning. "I'm carrying two loads," he says. "I'm doing Buschsponsors and Cup sponsors. So I'm doing 60 to 70 appearancesthis year." The younger Earnhardt also has his schedule of 32Busch races and five Cup events. "As soon as I get home from arace, I'm packing to go somewhere else," he says. "There's nodamn way I can remember all the people I'm meeting. It clouds mymind, and I forget half of what I've learned about driving racecars. Every time I get in a car to qualify, it's like I'm doingit for the first time."

When asked if he talks to Big E about all this, Dale Jr.replies, "If I try to talk to my dad about it, his answer tothat is probably that I'm not half as busy as he is, so I betterkeep my mouth shut. He says I've got it easy.

"This is just a tough part of my life right now. Maybe it willease up next year," Dale Jr. says and then pauses, pondering2000, his first full year on the Winston Cup circuit and allthat will be expected of the son of a seven-time Cup champion."Maybe next year might not be the time [when things ease up],"he says, "but the year after that, maybe the vise will loosensomewhat."

TranSouth 400ALL WET AND HAPPY ABOUT IT

Another Jeff--Burton, not Gordon--is the hottest driver on theWinston Cup tour. With Sunday's victory in the rain-shortenedTranSouth 400 at Darlington, Burton now has won two of the lastthree races and sits atop the point standings heading into thisweek's Primestar 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. His teammate andkindred dour spirit, Mark Martin, won last year's Texas race.Martin treats every visit to victory lane as if it were his last,and Burton, who has never won back-to-back Winston Cup races,likewise tends to expect the worst.

"We're always pessimistic," says Burton. "I'm this way by nature.The better you get, the more you expect of yourself and thereforethe more you're open for disappointment. It's a miserable way tolive sometimes. My poor wife [Kim] wants to go out and celebrateevery time we win, and I won't let her. It's just the way I feelI have to be."

So imagine Burton's reaction on Sunday when, with rain cloudsmoving in and threatening to shorten the scheduled 293-lap race,his front-running Ford Taurus got caught in a five-car pileup.The right side of his car suffered extensive damage when itsmacked the wall, but he kept the car under control long enoughto stay in the lead after the caution flag came out. He thensteered to the track's apron, climbed out and began gesticulatingand fuming at himself. He knew that if the race resumed, he'dfall off the pace. But then he felt the raindrops and begangesturing skyward, pleading for the clouds to burst. They did.

"Hell, yes, I was waving for the rain to come on," he said. "Iwas mad because I was afraid it wasn't going to rain very long. Iknew we'd had the best car [he led for the most laps, 59 of the164 completed], and we'd done the best job in the pits. We wouldhave finished last if it hadn't rained. So I was mad at myself."

Even in victory, Burton didn't get overly optimistic. "We hadthis car [the one he'd just wrecked at Darlington] slated to taketo Texas," he said. "Now it's torn up badly. We're verydisappointed that we can't take it." He drove his backup car to afourth-place finish at Atlanta on March 14.

"We're on a roll right now," Burton conceded, "but things canstill go wrong. They can go the other way even quicker than theycame this way."

COLOR PHOTO: GEORGE TIEDEMANN Gordon, who's co-owner of a Busch car and backed by a $1.5 million sponsorship, plans to run in five of the series' races this season.COLOR PHOTO: NIGEL KINRADE Ordinarily comfortable behind the wheel, Dale Jr. feels as if he's behind the eight ball this season.

THE Deal

63Days between the IRL's season-opening race, on Jan. 24 inOrlando, and its second race, scheduled for March 28 in Phoenix.Formula One's longest layoff this season is 35 days, CART's is21 days and NASCAR's is 14.

Before he became the premier postseason performer of his generation, the Patriots icon was a middling college quarterback who invited skepticism, even scorn, from fans and his coaches. That was all—and that was everything